November 8, 2007

This morning we had a site visit at Dora, a public hospital in PE. This hospital was much better than the psychiatric hospital from yesterday, but it was still not up to par compared to the United States. We visited the labor and delivery unit, and nursery, the pediatric ICU, the medical wards, the theaters (or the operating rooms), the pediatric burn unit, and the adult burn units. The burn units were the most difficult to visit. In pediatrics we learned that all of the cases that they get are burns that resulted from domestic violence, most of the times the burns are from scalding water that is thrown at the children. Very few cases that come in are from burns not sustained in a domestic conflict. It was very hard seeing little children wrapped in dressings all over their body. The pain that they are in is unbelievable and the dressing changes are even more traumatic for the children, and the adults. We went to the adult burn ward and there was a patient who had been necklaced the day before. This gets a little graphic, so this is the disclaimer that you may want to jump to the next paragraph…necklacing began during the Apartheid era and continues today as punishment and gang violence in many parts of the country. A tire is dowsed in gasoline and filled in the inside rim of the tire and then the tire is placed around a person so it will get stuck on their shoulders and pin their arms and the tire is lit on fire. It is a very brutal and violent act that is used to “punish” people or just to torture people for no reason. This particular patient was 13 years old and covered in burns. It was the most difficult thing to see, the only skin that was visible was his lips and nose that were covered with the oxygen mask.

I left the hospital frustrated with healthcare in South Africa and the illnesses and lack of resources, staff, and support that should be available to people. We had a discussion about differentiating the right to health and the right to healthcare. These people aren’t even given an opportunity, their right to living a healthy life just gets sucked away from the cycle of poverty. It is so upsetting.

When we came back home, I took a nap and at 3:00 Carrie came into the room to wake me up for post conference…our last one! We had our weekly post conference discussion and then I have been hanging out in the room just reading and relaxing for the rest of the night. I am very tired from a late night yesterday so I am going to go to bed early.